Transitioning fast to Dorpers at Eugowra

By Brett Tindal

A whirlwind transition from an 8000 ewe Merino flock

to a fully self-replacing Dorper ewe flock in 18 months

has changed the landscape, breeding philosophy and

farm output focus at Eugowra.

Traditionally a self-replacing Merino flock, Central West wool producer, turned lamb producer, Murray Thomas and his wife Emma and their three boys, trade as Mylandra Partnership and have literally sold one flock of 8000 Merinos and bought in a fully self-replacing Dorper ewe flock of 4500 ewes since August 2024 and flipped their farming

enterprise on its head.

Mr Thomas said that he bought his first Dorper ewes in August 2024 after a tough decision to sell off his Merino flock following an eye-opening experience that cemented the future production on his farm.

“I had an overseer working with me for 10 years and when he left me we had 8000 Merino ewes to manage with two back packers, which nearly killed me,” he said. It took me nearly 12 months to replace him. This influenced my decision to change enterprise. Mr Thomas said he valued his quality of life too much and something had to change and hence the research and adoption of Dorpers as a self-replacing lamb operation to run on their 8000 acres across his two properties and two leased properties within the family.

“When it came down to it, we were getting a poor return on wool, a huge dilemma in finding highly skilled Australian based labour to help us run the higher input Merino flock, cost

and availability of shearers and the continued investment in infrastructure.”

“When I decide to do things, I go hard at it and we did just that, sold all Merinos and traded

straight into 3500 Dorper ewes,” he said. Since then we have built ewe numbers up by joining ewe lambs to breed at seven months. The increase in the wool market has put pressure on my decision to change enterprise, but the financial returns from Dorper sales are supporting our decision to change.”

“The timing of the change from Merino to Dorpers was good timing for the capital change

over for us, doing it in the current climate would be very expensive,”he said. The Thomas family run 8000 acres, consisting of approximately a 50/50 split of

cropping to sheep production, with share farmers currently sowing 2000 acres down to

cereal and oil seed crops, while 2000 acres will go into fodder crops, lucerne and cereals to

be used for backgrounding and grain for the feedlot to finish lambs.

Mr Thomas said they run an eight-month breeding cycle, where they get three lambing’s

across a two year period and split their flock into two mobs to allow for lambs all year round and better use of available feed when ewes and lambs need it,” he said.

He said the three cycle joining gave them better use of their rams, better fodder supply and

enabled them to spread their production across the whole year.

“We bought in a vast range of genetics when buying the Dorpers and have therefore got

a mixed range of breeding ewes which we are classing them into exactly what we want.”

The Thomas Family, Mylandra Partnership, Eugowra

The Thomas’s join three times a year on January 1, May 1 and October 1, with an aim to produce lambs around 25 to 26kg dressed for slaughter over

the hooks. “We have been selling them over the hooks lately due to the range in our genetics and variation in consistency of product as our best solution, until we can tighten

our breeding lines and produce a more consistent article,” he said.

We run our lambs in backgrounding paddocks with feeders until they are 40kg liveweight, where the wethers and B class Ewes head straight into the feedlot, while our A class maiden ewes are joined at 40kg and head into the self-replacing flock.

Mr Thomas said they are averaging between 110 to 120 percent lambing’s and has

noticed through the eight-month joining cycle program they will get numbers up quickly and drop the age of your ewe base, but the downside was that with the quick joining turn around puts so much pressure on the ewe that they don’t get enough condition and body fat on the ewes to drive the production of multiples and increase their lambing

percentages. We plan to use some more supplementary feeding and teasers to hopefully increase our conception rates in the future. “We will use this system initially to get our numbers up, but as our genetic base settles and we stabilise numbers, I will look at

a yearly joining if we feel we will get better lambing’s and returns through that process,” he said.

“I attended a field day when we still had Merinos and a speaker told us that Dorper lambs are the fastest growing lamb breed in the first six months you will find and the results we are seeing recently absolutely verifies that,” he said. Mr Thomas weighed a group of

background wethers recently that had come from a wide cross section of genetics and over a five-week period averaged 315 grams per head per day in the backgrounding operation before hitting the feedlot. He said, the wethers hit the feedlot running and can easily do the last 15 to 20kg that we need them to in 40 days and then they are gone at 55kg to 60kg live weight.

“We find that joining the maiden ewes to a ram, once they reach 40kg is getting us very good returns and we will stick to that process.” Mr Thomas said he has been really impressed with the weight gains of the Dorper sheep and when he compares them to his

previous Merino operation. We’ve used EID to track individual and mob performance.

Growth rates with the Dorpers are close to double what we were achieving in paddock and on grain in feedlot with Merinos.

“Initially we purchased some really good ewes and in the next 12 months we will see an

outstanding ewe base we can really start to press forward with” he said.

Mr Thomas said he has three sons and is not sure if any have interest in the farm, so the switch to a more easy-care operation that gave him better quality of life was the priority at this time of his life. “I can now not have to worryabout staff and bring contractors in if needed to do the work I require and just simply muster the sheep and let them do their

job.”

“They are like little cows, you put them out, they do their thing andget fat and put weight on, you bring them in, finish them in the feedlot and send them off for

processing.”

“I’m glad I made the decision when I was 54 and not 64 as they have changed my outlook on the farm and are really enjoying what I am doing now,” he said.

Mr Thomas is liking what he is seeing already at 18 months and is extremely excited to see what they can do with the Dorpers once they get them humming.